Hammerfall
by Crossover King 46
Summary: After the three year training with the erosennin, Naruto finds himself back home. However, when a strangely familiar young man with blonde hair and whisker marks arrive on his doorstep, his life is going to get a whole lot weirder.
1. Chapter 1: Calling All Riders

**Hammerfall**

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People turned to stare at the newcomer as he walked through the streets of Konoha. It was really quite hard not to, as he stood out rather well against the background of the hidden village. A large black cloak adourned his body, lined with orange trims. His face was covered by a hood that protruded from the collar of the cloak.

Actually, this wasn't really that strange compared to some of what the civilians were used to. They did live in a village populated by shinobi after all, and strangers came and went with their strange cloaks and large, funny hats. Granted, it probably wasn't the smartest idea to get used to something like that, but if they didn't they'd probably get neurosis or something.

The attention grabbing thing was that on the back of the young man was a large... hammer. Half the height of the young man himself, it was decorated with a single spiral in the center, somewhat reminiscent of the Konoha emblem, though a bit different here and there. Shinobi usually didn't carry blunt weapons, as they usually took more effort to damage an enemy than a bladed one like a sword or a knife, so what they were seeing was definitely out of place.

The hooded stranger seemed to realize that he was the center of attention, and turned his head around, surveying the area. With one glance the civilians returned to what they had been doing before, slightly ashamed at having been caught staring. The hooded stranger himself was feeling rather stupid, as he realized the cloak was probably a rather bad idea.

After all, even if he took it off, nobody would know who he was anyway.

With a nervous grin on his face, he started strolling through the throng of people, making his way as though he had a definite point where he wanted to go. He should, after all. He knew where his target was, and he knew this place like the back of his hand.

Even if it was a little different than what he had remembered.

Even if it was another world.

---

Uzumaki Naruto stood in his apartment, looking at everything with the eye of somebody who hadn't been home in over three years. It was exactly like how he had remembered it, though it seemed a little bit dustier, but only now did he realize that it wasn't exactly the best place for a person to live. After travelling around with that ero-sennin for so long and sleeping in all those inns, his perspective had changed accordingly.

But... cleaning. That wasn't something that Uzumaki Naruto, soon to be the Sixth Hokage wanted to do. It was just so... so boring, and tedious. Maybe he could make his Kage Bunshins do it or something, though if they acted even remotely like him, which they did, it would be hard to try and convince them.

He could defeat the monster of the Sand, Gaara. He could face down one of the strongest ninja alive who had slaugtered his entire clan and only feel slightly nervous. Hell, he had gone throguh three years of getting beaten up by women for his sensei. So why was he so afraid of cleaning?

Maybe it was a guy thing, he mused. Sakura-chan seemed to have no trouble whatsoever forcing him to clean up whenever she had come over in the past, and even though his memories of her were only from three years ago and beyond he was a hundred percent sure that she hadn't lost her ability to command him with one word. That reminded him, he still had to go and see the rest of the rookie nine. It'd be awesome to see what they looked like now after three years, and to maybe show them some of his new jutsu, though he really didn't have a lot.

He shifted his footing slightly, and suddenly the large stack of dirty plates that had accumulated over his earlier years finally lost its balance and fell hard on his back. He hit the ground with a thud as the rest of the plates fell over the edge of the sink and smashed into the ground.

Crap, looked like he wasn't going anywhere until he cleaned up all of this shit.

---

He didn't know what he was nervous about. He had faced off against enemies that had no qualms about killing him before, and had been betrayed by one who he had cared about. He had stared death in the face before, and had come out alive. He had gone past hurdles much larger than this.

So why was he so afraid of meeting this guy?

The hooded stranger shifted his footing, and tried to make sure that he looked presentable. After all, he really didn't want to give him a bad first impression, as that would be really weird. Maybe the hammer would freak him out, since they didn't seem to have those things in this place. He was just glad that he had the sense to leave his weapon in the Ether. A giant sword might give him the wrong idea.

Alright then... deep breaths. There was nothing to get nervous about. The Craftslady had told him she had calculated everything, and that this guy was going to be quite easy to get along with. There was nothing to be worried about, nothing at all.

If he managed to survive this meeting, his friends would start coming through, and then he wouldn't have to go through this ordeal all by himself. No worries, no pressure. All he had to do was to make eye contact, say a pleasant hello or something. Make sure the atmosphere was comfortable before making his move.

Gulping, he stepped to the door and knocked.

---

Naruto was just shuffling through the apartment when the strange feeling struck. It hit him suddenly and seemed to penetrate through to the outside from within. It was a feeling of familiarity, as though something that he had always been missing had just appeared out of nowhere and he didn't know what to feel. Though of course, Uzumaki Naruto would never think of it that way.

"Ohhh maan... Must be that okonomiyaki sushi ramen that ero-sennin dared me to eat," mumbled the foxy genin to himself. "Knew I shouldn't have taken him up on that dare. It's gonna give me bowel problems all night now."

He quickly shook himself from that train of thought and took another look at the pile of junk that he was holding in his hands. Sighing, he tossed it into the large pile of garbage that he had been steadily building up. He'd let the Kage Bunshins take them out later, as they probably wouldn't have a problem with throwing something away that was already prepared.

He was just about to continue on with the cleaning when he heard the knock.

Who could be knocking on his door at a time like this?

Turning around in curiousity, he stepped towards the door, not noticing the strange feeling that he had felt from a while ago come back, stronger than ever. Whatever the source of the feeling was, it was right behind that door.

---

There were a million things that could go wrong. Maybe up to a zillion. It was too hastily thought out, there were so many holes. The entire plan was screwed up! Maybe he should've waited a while before he came here.

Wait, he was panicking. That wasn't good. Panicking was bad and made you screw up, just like in that first real fight he had against Zabanz. That was a real shame of a fight, and it was there that he made his promise to himself to never go back on his word. Okay. So he had made that promise, and now it was time to keep it.

He had said to himself that he wouldn't chicken out from this, no matter how hard it was going to be, and god be damned if he wasn't going to keep that promise. Silently, he steeled his resolve and faced the door. However, even with all the preparation that he was putting himself through he still couldn't help but jump slightly when the door opened.

---

Naruto had expected maybe one of the Rookie Nine or Team Gai. It was highly probable that they had heard about his return from one of their jounin-sensei already, as Jiraiya had sent a letter about it several weeks ago. When he had opened the door he was prepared to even be greeted with the sight of Lee or Gai, so the hooded stranger in front of him served only to confuse him.

"Umm... Hi," said the cloaked figure, almost nervously. The sight of the hammer confused Naruto further, but he had seen wierder things on shinobi before so he didn't really let it get to him. Though he was wearing a cloak it didn't have red clouds on it, so him being Akatsuki was ruled out. Those bastards were too flashy to come in disguise anyway.

"Yo," Naruto said. The eerie familiar feeling was coming back again, and it was coming directly out of this guy in front of him. There was something familiar about him... but he couldn't place it. The hood that covered his face didn't help.

"So, um... Could I come in or something?" asked the stranger.

Naruto thought about this for a second, and shrugged. Why not? Turning around, he beckoned the stranger inside. From what he could tell the guy in front of him seemed to have incredibly low chakra levels, even lower than a civilians, so there was no way that he would be dangerous to him unless he poisoned him or something, but then he had learnt in his travels with ero-sennin that poisons used on him would be negated by the Kyuubi.

He walked into his den carefully, trying not to make a fool out of himself in front of a total stranger. He had picked up some manners from the perverted hermit on their travels, and knew that the first thing that he as the host should do for the guest was to make him some kind of snack.

But then again, it might be pretty hard to find some fresh goods in his three year old apartment, so there was a bit of a problem there. Oh well, he'll find a way past it. Maybe he had some tea packets or something that he forgot about hidden somewhere.

As he walked about the room searching for something to serve to his guest, he didn't notice that the said guest in question was was getting more and more agitated.

---

"Sorry, but I don't seem to have anything for you," Naruto apologized. "So, what did you come here for?"

There was no way he could hold it in anymore. Maybe this was going to be a bit too sudden, but there was seriously going to be no way around it now. It was a bit eerie, seeing this guy in front of him. The way he acted, the way he moved. Everything, including the way he looked. It was all too familiar.

Taking his hammer off his back, he set it against the couch gently. Naruto's eyes followed the action slowly, but then instantly snapped up to the stranger's head when the young man in front of him raised his hand and pulled the hood back.

---

Naruto didn't know what to say. The source of the strange feeling was now explained.

The stranger had bright blonde hair, a little spiky here and there and held up by a headband. He had blue eyes that spoke volumes about his personality and the depth of his emotions, as well as a mouth that seemed to smile easily. Yet the most telling features that he had were the two sets of whisker marks that sat upon his cheeks.

It was like staring into a mirror, though not exactly. The stranger's hair was a little tamer than his and his headband was different, but that was about it.

"My name's Nathan Graves. I come from a world parallel to yours," said the young man. "I'm here to tell you that there's trouble heading your way, and I'm here to help you with it since it concerns out world too. I'm sorry for barging in like this, but this was the only way I..."

"Wait," Naruto said, trying to absorb what his carbon copy was saying. "So, you're saying you come from an alternate world? Like, one of those doppelgagner worlds that people theorize about? The ones where there are potentially people that are exactly like you?"

Ero-sennin had drilled that theory into his head trying to see how he would take theory. From what he had gathered from the pervert however, it seemed like he wasn't the type to go for theory. He worked much better with practical experience, but this was one time that he appreciated the old pervert educating him about the boringer aspects of the world.

"Well, not completely different," said Nathan. "There are a lot of similarities, but..."

"So, you're the me from the other dimension?" asked Naruto again.

"Yeah," nodded Nathan. It was rather easy to tell, after all. Both of them looked exactly the same, save their clothing, and even their clothing shared similar colour schemes, both of them featuring mainly black and orange. "That's right."

Then, everything clicked in Naruto's head.

"Well, you wouldn't mind some ramen, right?" asked the blonde Genin. "Cause that's all I've got."

Nathan tilted his head.

"Well, I dunno," said the alternate Naruto. "Is it anything like the waternoodles from back home? They're this kind of long, thin stuff that's made from grain and you put them in soup and cook it."

Naruto nodded, and turned around. The question of what he was going to serve his guest had just been answered, and while they ate the three year old ramen that he had left in his apartment he was going to sort all this stuff out in his head and then act on it. 'Cause he was feeling too numb to act like he usually did now.

So this was what it was like to be surprised when you were the number one surprising ninja of your hometown. Whoo, you learnt something new everyday.


	2. Chapter 2: Roll Up Beside Us

**Hammerfall**

"So, you're me," said Naruto again. It was really hard to get this all inside his head, but he was trying. It helped that his alternate image looked almost exactly like him, save for a bit of the hair and the clothing. "You're me from another dimension here to warn us about bad things."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," agreed Nathan. The alternate blonde was also feeling rather strange about this entire thing, and it helped that there was somebody else with the same problem. Nevermind that technically, they were the same person. Or maybe not. Whatever, this debate on existence going on inside his head was definitely not helping with the realization that he was speaking to himself. Or somebody who acted and looked exactly like himself.

Shit, they were confusing themselves.

They had been going about like this for thirty minutes now, and the idea hadn't really sunk in yet. It was hard to believe, but it was true. Every time Naruto almost convinced himself that what he was seeing was a hallucination, he looked back upwards and saw his carbon copy slurping up ramen exactly the way that he would. Then the realization hit him again and he had to try and tell himself that it wasn't real.

Soon both of them became tired of the routine.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that you're not using Genjutsu or Henge or anything like that since you don't seem to have enough Chakra," Naruto said, trying to swallow the words. "But I'm still gonna need some proof that you're not trying to trick me."

They were sitting cross-legged on the floor as they spoke. Naruto had made the ramen after all and both of them were eating it with gusto. It seemed like ramen was practically the same thing as Nathan's waternoodles, and it looked like the alternate he was used to eating expired food just like him.

"Yeah, I can see that you might need something like that," Nathan agreed. He knew that the guy in front of him was real, since he was the one that had crossed worlds after all, but if he was in his alternate's position he would definitely want some proof of identity. "Um, what do you want me to do?"

Naruto thought about this for a few seconds.

"Well, since you're from another world and stuff, you've got to be able to show me something that we can't do," said Naruto. "That should be easy! Since you're my alternate, you've got to have some awesome jutsu!"

Nathan adopted a strange facial expression at this. "Um, jits? What's a jits?"

"You don't know?" asked Naruto, waving his arms wildly and getting up from his position on the floor. "They're like... techniques! You use Chakra from your body and make explosions and stuff! For instance, I can make solid clones of myself. Watch."

With this, Naruto flipped through a series of hand seals and released some chakra. In an instant, two solid clones poofed into existence at his side. Nathan watched in realization as Naruto delivered a few quick punches towards the clones, making them poof out of existence again.

"Oh! That's almost exactly like Arts!" exclained Nathan with excitement, also getting up from his position on the floor. He suddenly took the hammer from the ground and raised it to eye level with a flourish. "I can do that too! Though... I probably shouldn't do them inside."

"Why's that?" Naruto asked.

"You'll see," said Nathan with a grin. "As soon as I get outside."

---

They were standing on one of the shinobi training grounds now, more specifically the one that Team 7 had adopted in their search for a good trianing area. Naruto gazed around fondly at the familiar grounds before turning to his doppelganger. Nathan had taken the giant hammer that he had come with.

"Alright," Nathan said. "From what I could tell, your jits... juts... jutsu seems to use a different kind of energy than what my people tend to use. Your energy is drawn from within you, and only one type of energy is used for all of your techniques. It's different from my energy, which I'll explain in a second."

"Yeah, that's basically what Chakra is," agreed Naruto, but he was slightly confused by something. "But how did you figure that out just from watching me?"

"You can't?" asked the alternate blonde. "It's a technique that all Craftsoldiers are taught. It's called Read. It determines the flow and power of energy of any kind by charging your eyes. Don't you have that?"

Naruto thought about this for a second. "Well, the only thing that's like that in our world is the Byakugan..." Suddenly, the full weight of what his counterpart had just uttered hit him where it counted, the noggin. "Wait, hold up! Does that mean you can teach anybody this?"

Nathan nodded.

"Providing they're able to use Anima and can control it properly, anybody can learn it," Nathan explained. "It's the first technique that any Craftsoldier apprentice learns, and the most basic. Why?"

Naruto instantly grew excited yet also a little nervous. What the alternate him had just said could possibly revolutionize the shinobi world. A Byakugan that anybody was able to learn? It could possibly change the entire face of shinobi warfare. There'd be no more hiding or sneaking around when you knew your enemies all had the Byakugan.

Nathan seemed to pick up on his emotions.

"What's wrong?"

Naruto quickly fell into an explanation about the use of the Byakugan in their world, and what it did as well as the advantage that it provided for the wielder. He also talked about the Hyuuga clan and several other bloodline limits that he knew of, including the Sharingan and Kimimaro's bone manipulation. Nathan fell into a thoughtful silence for a few seconds before he spoke again.

"No, Read isn't quite as powerful as this Byakugan," said Nathan, adopting a thoughtful pose. Naruto had realized since a little while ago that this counterpart of his was actually a little different from him, though not by much. From what he could tell the only difference was that his alternate was a little more intelligent, though a little less powerful.

"How come?" Naruto asked. "It's the same basic thing, isn't it? I mean..."

"Not exactly," said Nathan. "Read can't see through walls."

Naruto suddenly realized the difference.

"Oh," uttered the blonde genin.

"Exactly. From what you told me," said Nathan. "The Byakugan is a whole lot more than just being able to read energy. Though it seems to only be able to read Chakra, it can also see almost three sixty degrees and through objects. That makes it a lot different from a simple Read."

"Ah," said Naruto. He didn't know whether to be happy or to be depressed. The thought of a learnable Byakugan had rather excited him, since he had always wanted to see the way that Hinata and Neji did, but the idea of every single enemy he came across having the same ability wasn't something he wanted.

"Alright, now that I've finished explaining Read to you, do you want to hear a basic explanation of Anima?" asked Nathan. Naruto paid more attention, interested. "Whereas your Chakra is drawn from within, my energy is a little different... Well, maybe you'd be able to see it better if I actually show you."

At this point Nathan raised his hammer, holding it in his hands with ease ignoring its large size. Holding it up to the sky, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Naruto watched, amazed, as specks of blue light suddenly started appearing out of thin air and began congregating onto the hammer, like moths attracted to a flame.

What happened next was something that Naruto had never seen before. Nathan started chanting, as though reciting a poem. As he uttered each word, however, the energy gathered on the hammer started to dance and flicker, as though being manipulated by something.

_"Phantoms in the mist, gather upon my hammer. Shadows of change, come together! Appear seventeen spirits of darkness, arrive comrades who bear arms! **Shadow Clone!**"_

Raising his arms for the last time, he slammed the hammer into the ground. Naruto knew suddenly why his alternate had wanted to do this outside. The earth cracked and split, and the blonde ninja could feel small tremors running through the dirt.

Suddenly, from under the hammer seventeen shadows appeared, moving by themselves. Arranging themselves beside Nathan, the shadows rose and became figures, exact clones of the alternate blonde except almost completely black in colour and bearing glowing yellow eyes. Each of them held a different weapon.

Nathan grinned.

"_This_ is _my_ doppelganger skill."

There was only one thing that Naruto had to say.

"Holy shit."

The seventeen black clones quickly melted away at Nathan's command, and both blondes sat down.

"Alright," said Naruto, scratching his forehead. "After seeing that I'm going to have to believe you. So, what was it that you were going to talk to me about again? The trouble that's coming to this world?"

Nathan crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Yeah, that's pretty important, but... I'd rather talk about this in front of your leader first. Repeating it might get kind of annoying. You don't mind, do you? I know I'm kind of impatient, don't know about you though."

Naruto scratched his head. Well, he really did want to hear what his doppelganger had to say, but then again he didn't like it when he was ordered to do something, and there was no reason that his counterpart was going to be any different. He'd be able to bear with it for a while longer.

"No problem," said Naruto, getting up. "I might as well take you to the old hag already... But trying to get a meeting with her is going to be hell. You don't mind if we go around town first, do you?"

"Yeah, chill. I kind of want to see what your place is like anyway," said Nathan, brushing dust off his black and orange cloak. "...Wait, did you just say old hag?"

"Yeah, Tsunade-baachan, why?"

Nathan's jaw dropped. "No way! Your village is ruled over by an old woman too? Does she use an Illusion Art to hide her real age and have a black-haired assistant with a pig?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto laughed, and started running away from the field and towards the restaurant district of Konoha. Nathan quickly followed, reslinging the hammer that he had been holding onto his back. "This is great! C'mon, I'll treat you to ramen at Ichiraku's!"

Nathan grinned, and picked up his pace, trying to catch up to his alternate self. "If it's anything like old man Ivan Rack's waternoodles, then you're going to have to empty your wallet! 'Cause I can eat at least ten bowls in one sitting!"

"Oh yeah! Well I can eat twelve!"

"I can do fifteen!"

"Twenty!"

One could only wonder about the intelligence of trying to beat yourself at an eating contest. It was obviously a bad idea, as both of the contestants would probably just stuff themselves to death and lose a whole lot of change in the process.

But did intelligence matter? Well, it usually did. Just not to the number one surprising ninja of Konoha and the number one surprising Craftsoldier of the Lotus. One thing was sure however. Today, old man Ichiraku was going to make a lot of money.

---

"...So then Sasuke tossed the Shuriken that I Henge'd into towards no-brows, and then he dodged the first one that wasn't fake. Then, when the second one, this one was actually me, right. When the second one came zooming across, he totally blew his bowels and got pissed and that's when Kakashi-sensei got free!" said Naruto above the bowl of steaming ramen as Nathan listened attentively.

Old man Ichiraku hadn't given them a second glance since they came in, as Nathan had once again put the hood over his face. Ayame seemed slightly confused when she noticed the similarities in their voices, but had otherwise given no heed whatsoever to the second customer except that he was Naruto-kun's friend, and that was a plus in her books. Ichiraku was just glad that somebody else shared the same ramen-loving tendencies of his favourite customer, as it meant more money for him and more people for the poor demon vessel to connect to.

Both of them had come in and ordered the same thing, and the bowls had started piling up since. Halfway through their fourth bowl they seemed to lose interest in the eating contest, and Naruto had started recounting his adventures to his attentive double who, although had lived through most of these adventures himself, was still interested by the differences in their life stories.

Though he hadn't given away much of his life story, Naruto had come to pick up on a few details about his alternate. He was a Craftsoldier, something much like a shinobi in his world, though one that seemed to have skills in an area beyond fighting. Naruto had been bugging the other blonde about it, though everytime he asked Nathan would just grin and say it was a secret.

"Well... from what I've seen so far my world's just like yours with a few differences," said the alternate blonde. "For instance, I live in the Lotus, it's not called the Leaf, and the leader of the village is the Firesmith, not the Hokage. There're a lot of small differences, but everything's basically the same. I mean, I know the same people, but some of them act a little differently from what you describe..."

"Then c'mon!" pried Naruto. "Tell me about them!"

Nathan grinned. "See, you're not gonna have to worry about that. Hopefully in a few days, all of the Newcomer Nine as well as Cell Laolong is going to be crossing over themselves. Man, it's going to be awesome!"

Both of them slipped off into daydreams. Naruto about the possibility of two Sakura-chans, and Nathan about the possiblity of two Sherry's. Suddenly, Naruto came to a realization.

"Crap!" cursed the blonde. "I haven't seen Sakura-chan since I got back from my training trip! Actually, I haven't seen anybody since I got back from my training trip yet! And I've got a present for Kakashi-sensei too..."

"What's wrong?" asked Nathan. "Can't you just go see them now?"

"Well, yeah... But..." Naruto mumbled to himself. "I can't just leave you here, and they'll definitely be weirded out by an alternate dimension thingy... I just want to see them again and see what's been happening since I left."

Nathan thought about this for a second.

"Wait! I've got an idea!"

---

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Well, why not?" asked Nathan. "Trust me, there's no way they'll be able to tell."

"Hey, Sakura-chan's right over there!" Naruto perked up. Raising his hand, he started waving at the pink-haired girl of his dreams. It was noontime, and even though today was a relatively cool day it was starting to heat up slightly. "SAAAAKUUUURAAAA-CHAAAAAN!"

Sakura turned her head slightly, and caught sight of her blonde teammate.

"Naruto!" said the pink-haired girl happily. "You're back!"

"Of course, Sakura-chan!" grinned the blonde. "And I want you to know that I've been dreaming of you since I was gone! I've got a lot of new jutsu, do you wanna see some? I'll have you know that I wouldn't do this for anybody else!"

"Dumbass!" laughed Sakura as she ran up to the blonde boy. "What kind of shinobi shows off his jutsu? It's so good to see you! I've been training under Tsunade-shisho since you've left, and I've learnt a lot of things."

"Oh?" grinned the foxy Genin. "Did you realize your love for me over the course of three years?"

"Idiot!" said the pink-haired kunoichi as she slapped Naruto up the head. "So, what are you doing wandering around with a Kage Bunshin?"

Nathan had dressed himself up in a spare set of Naruto's clothing, and he had to admit, they fit him rather well. The large black and orange cloak that he had on had really been making him sweat, and the simple attire that Naruto was so fond of was rather cool both literally and the other way. Side by side the two looked identical, and only if you looked closely could any difference be made between them.

"Well, uh... It's a new training that ero-sennin's making me go through!" grinned Naruto happily. "He says that if I'm able to keep up a Kage Bunshin for the entire day then he'll teach me a new jutsu!"

"Well, if that's what Jiraiya-sama says... I guess..." Sakura crinkled her nose. "But is it just me, or is the skin tone of this Kage Bunshin a little bit darker than your own? I've never heard of that before, is it something that Jiraiya-sama taught you?"

Naruto spun around. It was true. Nathan's skin tone was a bit darker than him, and they hadn't noticed it. Quickly, Naruto tried to find a way to bluff out of this. There had to be some way... But then he realized that Sakura herself had given him a way out of this.

"Yeah, of course!" Naruto grinned. "I'm using Henge on the Kage Bunshin, so, you know, you can disguise them and stuff. I'm just switching his skin colour right now because... it's, uh, easy! And I really don't want to start with the harder things!"

"Didn't you already do that trick in the Forest of Death?" Sakura asked. Naruto cursed, his Sakura-chan really had a good memory. "I mean, I'm not questioning you or anything but..."

"Well, it's a lot harder when you have to keep it up for a long time!" grinned Naruto. "There's like... double the load of Chakra... and stuff, you know... Yeah, it's an exercise to help with my Chakra control. That's why if I manage it for a full day Jiraiya's going to teach me the new technique!"

"Well, you seem to be working hard..." smiled Sakura wistfully. Naruto sighed in relief, he had passed that hurdle. "Oh, by the way. Kakashi-sensei's around here somewhere, would you like to see him again?"

"Oh yeah," Naruto nodded. "I've got something for him, signed by the ero-sennin himself."

Almost on cue, there was a poof of smoke and there stood their jounin-sensei. He looked the same as ever, still sporting that tilted headband as well as the jounin uniform. He took a look at his blonde charge.

"Looks like you're doing fine, Naruto," said the gray-haired jounin absent-mindedly. "How was your training trip?"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto laughed. "You haven't changed at all!"

"Well, maybe it looks that way," smiled the jounin. "But I'll have you know that since you've been gone I've learnt a few tricks myself. I'm still young after all, and there's still a lot of things for me to learn. Now, what was it that you were going to give me again?"

Naruto rummaged around in his kunai pouch before pulling out a familiar orange book, though a little different than the one Kakashi himself used to read all the time. Kakashi's eye widened at the sight of it, as he recognized the name from an Icha Icha insider magazine that he had subscribed to since a while ago.

"Icha Icha Tactics!" Kakashi cried out in surprise. "But... how... It's not even out yet!"

"Well, ero-sennin said that he wanted you to see it first since you're a dedicated fan or something," said Naruto. "I dunno why you like it though. From what I read it seems pretty boring..."

"You read this trash, Naruto!"

"Not by choice! Sakura-chan!" yelled Naruto as Sakura proceeded to smack him up the head a few more times. "I only read it 'cause ero-sennin said it would make me stronger! There's no other reason other than that, I swear!"

Kakashi grabbed the book as it flipped out of Naruto's hands and turned the page, beginning to read. Sakura pulled Naruto down to the floor and prepared to give him the beating of his life as Nathan wondered whether at all they remembered he was there.

---

A/N: Here are the name list of the alternates. Most of the important characters are included, and the order is completely mixed up. Good luck trying to match them up with one of the official characters!

The names of all the Rookie Nine are included, as well as Team Gai and Team Suna. All the jounin-sensei are included except for Baki, and the Sannin are included as well.

Nathan Graves

Jackie Wong

Sherry Springfield

Sean Abram

Nails Solfleur

Lina Flowerfall

Fei

Kamella of the Sands

Fang Tracker

Ruby Eve

Katie Solfleur

Siegfried

Laolong Chen

Brunhild

Syka Mideel

Asol Leafire

Crash Cocone

Zack Defender

Gunther

Morgue the Sandman

Karsh Hatchet

Karkaro of the Sands

Siegfried

Brunhild


	3. Chapter 3: All Freedom Fighters

**Hammerfall**

Tsunade was bored out of her mind. The paperwork that piled upon her desk wasn't exactly helping with her position, as it was precisely what she was trying to avoid. Shizune had gone out with Tonton to buy groceries, and this time the guards outside seemed fairly intent on making sure that she didn't sneak out from work.

Bastards.

She groaned as she stared down at the pile of paper and the large stamp that she had beside her. It was true that she wanted to just stamp the whole thing and let it get out of the way, but she had to read them all anyway because she really didn't want to make any bad decisions. How did that old man take care of this? How did he manage to do it? Was it because he knew Kage Bunshin and she didn't? Was that it?

Right now there were two things that she wanted. One, for Naruto to teach her the shadow clone skill since he seemed to be so good at it, and the other was some excitement. She'd even swallow a missing-nin attack or something as long as it got her out of all this paperwork!

"Yo, baa-chan!"

Speak of the devil. Or maybe angel. Whichever one could deliver her from the personal hell that she had found herself entrapped in since her orientation as the official leader of this village of ninja.

"Come in, gaki. Good to see you after three years," said Tsunade as she stood up from her position behind the desk and opened the door. "Who's this with you?"

Naruto stepped inside, accompanied by Nathan who was once again in his hood and cloak disguise. Tsunade closed the door behind her once again and walked over to the desk, looking upon her two guests with some curiousity.

"Ano, well..." Naruto wasn't really quite sure how to explain it. Maybe this was what his alternate had felt when he had came into his house to deliver the news. Well, maybe he'd just take the same path that the other he did then. It seemed to work for him. "Drop your hood, man."

Nathan did so. Tsunade didn't blink an eye.

"Is there something about this Kage Bunshin that I'm missing?" Granted, the clothing was a little bit strange, but this was probably just another prank of the gaki's anyway. Maybe he came here for advice on a disguise? Maybe Jiraiya had told him that she used to be known as a master of disguise, of which her age-hiding Genjutsu had stemmed from...

"No, not that," Naruto said. "It's just, um. He's not a Kage Bunshin."

Tsunade yawned.

"Ah, so you finally mastered the Bunshin. Not a bad job... Much better than what your academy teachers told me, but the skin tone's slightly off. You might want to look into that."

Naruto was starting to get slightly agitated. Nathan just stared, it was strange. Both Sakura and Kakashi had been practically the same as the ones from his own world, and now this. He knew when he got here that there were going to be similarities, but even he didn't expect it to be so... so exactly similar.

"No, see," Naruto said. "He's not a Bunshin of any kind."

"A Genjutsu then?" asked Tsunade. "But Kakashi always said you had no talent whatsoever in that area..."

"NO!" Naruto cried. "He's real!"

There was a silence for a few seconds where Nathan just looked around the room, feeling slightly out of place. Then Naruto came over to Nathan's side and delivered a punch to his gut, propelling him into the wall. As Nathan got back up from his position on the floor, he was about to cry out in indignation when.

"See?" Naruto asked. "He didn't go poof, so it means he's not a Kage Bunshin! He got hit, so that mean's he's not a Bunshin! There's collateral damage on the walls and stuff so he's not Genjutsu either! It's not really that hard to figure out, baa-chan!"

Tsunade just sat, bored.

"That's going to come out of your pay, gaki," Tsunade said, looking at the wall that Nathan had been hit onto. The wallpaper was cracking slightly. "I'll have you know that the wallpaper I use here in this room isn't very cheap."

Naruto groaned. He didn't deserve this.

---

"...and so that's what's going on!"

Tsunade looked at the alternate Naruto, who grinned nervously back. Since this old lady seemed exactly the same as the one in his world he did not want to go about pissing her off. Maybe the legendary strength didn't carry over from world to world but he didn't want to go about figuring it out the hard way.

"Well, I'll be damned," Tsunade said, rubbing her forehead. "First thing you get back and you come to me with this." It seemed like one of her two wishes had come true, but now she felt as if it was going to become more trouble than it was worth.

"Umm... sorry about this," said Nathan cautiously.

"Don't worry about it," said Tsunade. "From what I heard you seemed to have come to our world to help us. Anyway, it's not impossible. A few researchers in Konoha have thought of this theory quite a while ago now, just none of us figured out a way to prove it."

"This is about my world too," said Nathan, boldening. "Though we say we're here to help it's also partly our fault. It was through our incompetence that this problem happened, and it's only right that we're here to help solve it."

Tsunade was slightly surprised at this display.

"You really weren't fooling!" said the Godaime. "There's no way the Naruto of our world could come up with a speech like that. It seems like that you really are an alternate."

Both of them ignored Naruto's cries of indignation.

"Tell me about this problem that we have."

"Basically..." Nathan said with a deep breath. "An Abandoner from our village has just crossed worlds into yours to prepare for a body transfer technique. He's trying to join up with his alternate from this world to try and dominate this world first before taking the army that he's going to be training up here back to our world to try and conquer ours. That's the gist of it."

Tsunade sighed as she stared down at the young man in front of her with those familiar blue eyes and blonde hair. Check that, she'd prefer paperwork over what the guy in front of her was spouting. This was going to be a hell of a lot more trouble than what she really wanted.

"This... Abandoner of yours. He wouldn't happen to have a fetish for snakes, would he? And the body he's trying to transfer into... Is it the sole remaining heir of one of your village's most powerful clans?" asked the Godaime, scowling.

Nathan nodded, guessing that the old woman in front of him probably had already pinpointed their world's versions of the ones he had been talking about. That Sasuke person that Naruto had been talking about seemed to be their version of Zack...

A pang of pain crossed his heart as he thought of his cellmate. But he knew it wouldn't last. He'll soon find him, and bring him back. He had promised Sherry, and he intended to keep his word. After all, what had that three year training he went on with the Craftsman of Ruby been for?

Naruto looked at him. He had already realized who was to be involved in that body switching thing of Nathan's, and knew that his version of Sasuke must've meant the way to his alternate that Sasuke had meant to himself. Without even thinking about it, he put his hand on the shoulder of his double.

Nathan looked back in surprise as Naruto grinned boldly.

"Don't worry about it, man," said the foxy shinobi. "We'll get him back, and you can help me get Sasuke back too. If you're like me, then you're gonna be one of those stubborn guys to keep to their word. Otherwise I'm gonna disown you."

"Y-Yeah!" Nathan said. "But do you even know what disown means?"

"Of course!" Naruto said. "It's got something to do with... uh..."

As Tsunade watched the two Narutos in front of her converse, she couldn't help but feel slightly relieved. It wasn't a lie to say that she had unshakeable faith in the boy, and so even after the bad news that his alternate had brought to them it felt somewhat safe seeing another person that she could depend on. If he was anything like his counterpart under pressure, that was.

She couldn't help but feel that one Naruto against one Orochimaru was an even, possibly even bad match, but two Naruto against two Orochimaru? It kind of didn't make sense, but for some reason she'd feel a lot safer placing her money down on that match.

But damn... now she wanted to meet her own alternate. Hopefully she'd be coming in that wave of reinforcements that the alternate gaki was talking about, though if she had her own village to run... maybe that'd just be a far off dream.

"Wait," mumbled Tsunade. "How are we going to explain this to the rest of the village?"

Both Naruto and Nathan stopped. They hadn't thought of that.

---

"Alright then, you got all of that?" asked Tsunade. Naruto and Nathan looked at each other hesitantly before turning back to the Godaime, nodding. "Until the reinforcements from your world arrive, we're not going to tell the village about any of this. It'll just send them into panic, and I'm sure that there will be those who won't believe. Not to mention there's nothing we could do even if we did inform them."

Nathan looked at the old lady in front of him with concern.

"But... are you sure we should do nothing?" asked the alternate blonde. "Gunther from my world has already crossed over into this one, and he's probably met up already with himself from this world... If they start working together then---"

"Think about it," said Tsunade, rubbing her forehead. "Naruto accepted you easily because you were in familiar territory to him, and he knew that you weren't Akatsuki somehow. He's also a dumbass... Which is why he even chose to believe you without kicking you out of his home immediately. Orochimaru, our world's version of your Gunther, is on the run, and he'll be suspicious of everything and anything. This Abandoner of your's is going to have to work some magic to make him believe. That's going to buy us some time."

Nathan's eyes widened in realization as Naruto snorted derisively at being called a dumbass for the second time today. What had he ever done to warrant the title? It wasn't like he couldn't be smart when the situation callled for it... The baachan must really hate him or something. (Ironically, he didn't realize it was the furthest thing from the truth.)

"But... people will be suspicious, won't they?" asked Naruto in a moment of clarity. "I mean, I'm an orphan. I don't have a family of any kind and everybody knows about it, so if anybody sees us walking down the streets together they might be freaked out..."

"That's true," Tsunade said, snapping her fingers. "You'll need a disguise then... You can't keep that hood on all the time, after all. But we've already got enough materials to work with here. Your alternate's skin tone is darker than yours, as you've already noticed. If we just take away his headband and maybe alter his face a little bit, the most anybody would see would be a passing similarity."

She turned towards the alternate blonde.

"You wouldn't have any technique to hide yourself, would you?" asked Tsunade. "Most of the shinobi in the village can detect Genjutsu, so I don't want to use something like that on you. It'd be best for you to use your own techniques, as we can't seem to be able to detect that... Speaking of which, you'll have to explain this Anima of yours to me a little better."

Nathan thought about this for a few seconds.

"Well... I do have one technique that can hold for a long time," admitted Nathan. "Though it's kind of embarassing since I don't usually use it in public..."

Naruto searched through his memory banks quickly. From what he had seen so far Nathan had a version of his Kage Bunshin, so it couldn't really be that far-fetched to believe that he probable had different versions of all of his jutsu. Was there one he knew that could fit the criteria on this? Henge was usually a temporary thing, and it was detrimental to one's health to use it for a long time. There was only one other way...

"Holy crap," gasped Naruto. "You're going to use the Oiroke no Jutsu?"

Tsunade's eyes widened in realization. She had heard about this exceedingly dangerous technique and the way that it had defeated her precedent. Hopefully the alternate blonde was going to wear clothes, because the idea of a naked Naruto clone walking through the streets was something that she didn't want to have to deal with.

"Huh? What's that?" asked the alternate blonde.

"You don't know? Don't you have a jutsu, you know... Where you turn into a girl?"

Nathan tilted his head to the side.

"Why would I have a jutsu like that?" asked the other Naruto. Both the blonde-haired shinobi and the Godaime looked at him in slight shock. They had not expected this turn of events. Was it possible that... "What's the point in a technique like that? Isn't being a guy not good enough for you?"

"No, it's not like that!" cried Naruto. "It's just, well... Don't you want an edge in battle? Against perverted old men?"

Nathan just looked at his counterpart, confused.

"What are you talking about?" asked the alternate blonde. This whole situation really was confusing him. "Why would turning into a girl give you an edge in battle? Unless you're planning to use the natural flexibility of the female body or something... But then wouldn't it be hard to switch in battle?"

Tsunade slapped herself on the head. It seemed like beyond the increased intelligence and overall calmer personality of the alternate blonde, there was another, crucial difference in their personalities.

Whereas their Naruto was a average shinobi, perhaps a little more exposed to the more intimate sides of life through being tutored by four perverted yet respectable shinobi (Iruka, Kakashi, Ebisu for a short while, and Jiraiya over the course of three years), Nathan seemed to be _completely _unaware of such things.

Suddenly, Tsunade was confronted with the image of a non-perverted Jiraiya, and she shivered. There were things in the world that just weren't meant to be, and even though she thought it was nasty and that perverts deserved to die she knew that Jiraiya without his perverseness just wasn't Jiraiya.


	4. Chapter 4: Switch On Your Nitrous

**Hammerfall**

It turned out in the end that Nathan did have the Sexy no Jutsu, though he didn't call it that nor did he use it the same way that Naruto did. Whereas Naruto's jutsu turned him into a nude female version of himself and everything was actually in the right place, Nathan's technique, aptly named the Morph, could change any part of his body and though he could use it for a long time he couldn't really change too much.

Nathan had slightly altered the shape of his eyes, and changed his nose a bit as well as adding on to his height. The next part was getting rid of his whisker marks, and then he changed the colour of his hair as well to a dark shade of brown. The last act was the taking off of his headband, which actually didn't seem to be his world's version of the hitae-ate. Nathan himself had explained that he just wore the black rag to keep his hair out of his face, and now that his headband was off his bangs were in his face.

Currently, he was explaining Anima to the interested Hokage in front of him.

"...So, you see. Anima exists in all living things and non-living things, like rocks and stones," said Nathan. "To use Arts of a certain element, you have to draw upon the Anima of something with that element. Say I wanted to cast an Earth Art, I would need to be in contact with dirt or stone or something of that type, and if I wanted to cast a Water Art, there has to be water somewhere nearby. Of course, you can always imbue something with different Anima... say..."

He looked around for an example, and finally picked up a brush on the Hokage's desk.

"This thing is made of wood and animal hair, right?" asked the alternate blonde.

Tsunade nodded.

"So then it's an object containing Anima of both Leaf and Beast," affirmed Nathan. "Using this thing, I'd be able to cast Leaf Arts and Beast Arts, but since it's so small and hasn't gone through refinement, I'd only be able to cast low-level Arts and I'll need to use incantations for it. I can imbue it with a different element, but the process requires rare materials and a lot of time, and it wouldn't be as good as if I had an object that naturally possesses that element. I can however, refine it so that it'd become stronger and let me cast higher level Arts with it. That's basically it."

Tsunade nodded again, interested. Naruto had come along quite a find. This Anima of his alternate's... It sounded like something that would indeed be able to boost the power of their village. Situations where Anima could come in handy quickly flooded her mind... A tired shinobi running out of Chakra, using Anima to substitue... Perhaps using Anima and Chakra at the same time to boost the physical prowess of a shinobi into something unimaginable...

Suddenly, she thought about something.

"That Art you showed Naruto," she said. "What element is it then?"

"That was a Darkness Art."

"Then where did you get the Anima for it?" asked Tsunade. Naruto himself was also slightly interested. There was nothing nearby when he had done the trick that might've accounted for the Anima of Darkness, so he was curious. Maybe there was something he hadn't told them yet. "From what I heard, you didn't have a source of the proper Anima nearby."

At this, Nathan became slightly uncomfortable, though he kept talking.

"Well... I told you that all beings, living or not, has Anima, right?" asked Nathan. Tsunade nodded. "In that way, humans are the same. Except unlike a stone, which always has the Anima of Earth no matter where you find it, humans are born with differing Anima at birth. Nobody in my world's quite sure how it's determined, but most think it has something to do with genetics or temperament."

Naruto was getting impatient.

"Most people can't call upon the Anima that lies within them, though they use it all the time. It's the Anima inside yourself that allows you to use the Anima of other things, so if you use a Fire Art from a charred log and you have Fire Anima, it'd definately be stronger than somebody who with Water Anima using the same Fire Art from the same object," here Nathan took a deep breath. "But, with the proper training you would be able to even use the Anima from within yourself. It just wouldn't be as strong as combining your Anima with something else's."

"So that Art was a product or your own Anima, then?" Tsunade asked. "But why would you go through all that trouble of learning how to use your own power? Wouldn't it just be easier to use an object with the element that you require?"

"Well, some elements are incredibly rare, to the point of unfairness, and there are limits to every element," admitted Nathan. "Fire, for instance, would be kind of hard. You can't carry a live flame everywhere, and things other than flames with the element of Fire are usually charred and break easily, though sometimes the air gets hot enough to qualify for Fire Anima."

Tsunaded nodded, that made sense.

"My own Anima, Darkness," said Nathan. "Is a product of the night. Naturally, the only time I can use it is at night, and even then I have to be in the shade, so that no light from the moon or otherwise hits me, but I don't need any object if those conditions are fulfilled. That makes it really hard to use in combat. However, most Darkness Arts are made for combat, so it's pretty unbalanced. That's why I underwent the training that gave me my ability to manifest my own Anima."

"I see," Tsunade said. "What about that hammer you carry?"

At this, Nathan grinned.

"Oh, that. It's for the other side of a Craftsoldier's combat abilities. You didn't think that all my people used were Anima, now did you?"

Ah, Tsunade nodded. The alternate version of Taijutsu.

---

"So, what about that other technique you told me about?" asked Naruto. "The one called... Ri-Riido?"

"Read?" asked Nathan.

They were walking back to Naruto's home. Tsunade had, after all, assigned that Nathan lived with Naruto until the reinforcements from his world came. Nathan had said that they would arrive in around a week, which gave them plenty of time to get to know each other and show Nathan around the village of the Hidden Leaf.

They had encountered a few more of the Rookie Nine on their way back from the Hokage's tower, and Naruto was slightly surprised at how each and every single one of the Genin that he had met back at the Chuunin Exams had grown so much. Akamaru had gotten huge, and Shino seemed to have gained quite an ability to hold grudges. Shikamaru had been walking along with Temari, though both of them seemed to deny enjoying each other's company. Ino had been on an errand for her family's shop, and it looked like she hadn't let go of her sense of fashion yet.

"Yeah, what Anima does it use?"

"Read uses neutral Anima," said Nathan. "Basically, any Anima at all can be used to power Read. All you need if a bit of Anima, no matter what kind though there are slight differences. Water elemental Read can also allow you to read a little bit of their emotions, while Thunder elemental Read can give you slight X-ray vision. Not enough to be useful in a battle, though."

"Ah," Naruto nodded sagely.

They walked in silence for a few seconds, before Naruto turned to his counterpart again. Nathan looked at the now shorter blonde. It was a bit of trouble getting used to this new form of his.

"Hey, can you teach me how to use Anima?" asked the blonde shinobi.

Nathan thought about this for a second. It actually wasn't that bad of an idea.

"Sure, but in return, you'll have to teach me how to use that Chakra of yours, capiche?"

Naruto grinned.

---

The ground in front of Naruto exploded as Nathan blurred in and out of sight. It was amazing how quick that the alternate blonde was (he had taken off his disguised form as they were in the middle of a spar, and he could put it on as soon as anybody came into view), though Naruto was sure that he was the type that traded power for speed.

Nathan had started off with a hammer blow to the ground, and Naruto had trouble following his movements through all the debris that had flown up into the sky. Only when he felt the stinging blow of a punch to his midriff did he realize that his counterpart had approached his position already.

"C'mon, don't leave me hanging like this!" grinned Nathan. "If this is all you've got then I'm ashamed to call you my alternate."

Naruto grinned back, wincing slightly. Grabbing the other blonde by his hand, he dealt a blow to his stomach with his knee, before swinging him into the sky and quickly taking out several kunai, launching them towards the other blonde.

"Same here, teme!" yelled the shinobi, who began running up the nearest tree.

Nathan deflected all the kunai with a swing of his hammer, and noticed Naruto jumping up to meet him, kunai in hand. The Craftsoldier aimed his hammer carefully, and launched it towards his counterpart. Naruto's eyes widened slightly in shock, before quickly summoning up a Kage Bunshin with a hand seal who pulled him out of the way. The only price was that the Kage Bunshin had been completely destroyed by the flying weapon.

"_...Darkness supreme, destructive lands. Power overwhelming, flow into my hands! **Spiral Void!**" _

Naruto turned his gaze back towards the sky, and his eyes widened as he saw a black sphere grow in his counterpart's hand. It was almost exactly like his Rasengan, except where his was generally blue and white due to the brightness, this attack was completely black. It didn't even seem to reflect light.

Without even thinking about it, he raised his hand up himself. During his three year training period with the perverted hermit he had managed to master the Rasengan to such a degree that he was able to use it without the aid of a clone, but it hadn't been easy. The sennin had warned him against using it on comrades, though he hadn't exactly forbidden it, and since Nathan was using what seemed to be his version of the Rasengan, Naruto felt obliged to give him back the same.

Both Jutsu and Art clashed in midair, but it hadn't been exactly what Naruto had anticipated. He had expected something like what had happened during the battle between him and Sasuke-teme, a large battle for dominance of epic proportions, but that was exactly what he hadn't gotten. Whereas the clash of Rasengan and Chidori had been te battle of two unstoppable forces, this black Rasengan of his counterpart's wasn't at all an unstoppable force.

Instead of repelling his attack like it should have, it absorbed it. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the sphere of glowing energy that had one second been spinning in his hands get eaten by the dark void that sat upon the palm of his parallel. Just as the dark sphere was about to touch him as well however, the black sphere vanished, and both Ninja and Craftsoldier hit the ground.

Naruto was still in light shock about the technique that the other blonde had pulled off on him, but that was quickly gotten rid of when he saw Nathan gripping his arm in pain. Indeed, his arm seemed to be seizuring, twitching everywhere including places that Naruto didn't know the human body could twitch.

Just as Naruto, running up to his counterpart, was about to announce his concern, Nathan grinned, though it was obviously hard for him.

"Don't worry about it," he said with slight difficulty. "It's just... a side-effect. "

Sighing slightly in relief, Naruto watched on. Whatever it was that Nathan was suffering from, it was obviously something that he was used to, and even though it pained Naruto to see people that he knew go through any kind of pain, it was obvious that there was nothing he could do.

Within seconds, Nathan lost the crazy twitch that he had in his right arm, though from the way he moved it seemed like he couldn't control it very well. Naruto helped his counterpart up from the grass, and Nathan quickly assumed his form-changing Art again as the spar had ended.

"What was that?" asked Nathan, as he looked down at the orange-clad shinobi, enjoying the height that his assumed form bestowed upon him.

Naruto was slightly taken back, he himself had been preparing to ask that same question, though his counterpart seemed to have had beaten him to the punch.

"The Rasengan?"

"Whatever you call it," Nathan said. "The last attack you did. The swirling one."

Naruto was slightly surprised that Nathan had realized what powered the Rasengan so quickly, though when he remembered the Read technique that Nathan had talked about, it suddenly didn't seem so strange.

"That's the attack ero-sennin taught me!" Naruto grinned at his counterpart. "Why? Do you want me to teach it to you?"

Nathan shook his head.

"No, it just... did a lot of damage."

"What? But it didn't even touch you!"

"My Spiral Void is an attack where I conjure a miniature black hole," sighing at Naruto's dumb look, he explained further. "Like a gravity well where something is so heavy it collapses on itself. It sucks up whatever I want it to and sends it to another dimension. Something like limbo."

Naruto thought about this for a few seconds, before suddenly widening his eyes in realization.

"So, you can break through any kind of defense, and if you hit the right place then it's instant KO?"

"Basically, though it isn't as good as you think it might be. I mean, I can control what I want to absorb, which if why I used it against you as even if I hit you, you still would've been fine. But that attack that you did... Resengen?"

"Rasengan."

"It managed to damage my control," admitted Nathan. "Normally only if I suck up a lot of things then my arm starts twitching, but this time all I did was absorb that attack and my control started to break down. It hasn't happened before."

Naruto thought about this for a few seconds. Then, in a rare display of genius, realized something.

"Wait, do Anima and Chakra mix well?"

"Umm... I... don't know," admitted Nathan. "I guess they might not, since they rely on different principles..."

"Then does that mean it was because I was using a Chakra-based attack that made you lose control?" asked Naruto, intelligently, raising a hand to his chin. "Since you're used to fighting against only Anima-using opponents, doesn't that mean you've never absorbed a Jutsu before?"

Nathan's eyes widened in realization.

"This... I... We're going to have to spar again. I'm not going up against a hostile shinobi without learning all of my weaknesses against Chakra, and I'm guessing the sames goes for you too."

Naruto nodded. The idea of going up against an enemy that could nullify his Rasengan had been a humbling experience. These training sessions were going to be good for the both of them, something that would help them in the upcoming war against both the Sound and the Abandoner from Nathan's world.

- OMAKE -

"What do you mean, what do I have sealed in me?" asked Nathan.

Naruto waved his hand around at his double, "C'mon, being my double and all of course all the readers are gonna think that you've got a century old demon sealed within you or something. We've already established that you're gonna flip out and go real ultimate power wailing on your hammer-guitar sometime soon, but we just wanna know how you're gonna do it."

"But, uh, are you sure?" asked the alternate blonde, nervously. "I mean, wouldn't that be a spoiler?"

Naruto looked at Nathan strangely, "This is a fanfic. Nobody is gonna give a shit over a spoiler or two."

"Well, alright... But how should I do it?"

"Just deux ex machina it into existence or something. This is an Omake! We're allowed to do anything we want!"

Naruto snapped his fingers, and suddenly Sasuke popped out of nowhere. He looked around, disoriented for a few seconds before coming across the sight of the two blondes, and pulled out his own version of the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, preparing to run both of them through.

However, before he had a chance to, Naruto snapped his fingers again. Sasuke suddenly found himself buried under two incredibly obese women, or more specifically, fangirls. And when it said obese, it meant obese. These girls were thrice as wide as they were tall, making both blondes positive that they both had to have some elephant blood within them. Windmilling his arms in horror, he tried to find his happy place as the two women quickly realized that they were sitting on their idol.

Nathan paled as he percieved the ensuing chaos, and Naruto blanched.

"Okay, I didn't mean to go that far..." admitted the blonde. With another snap of his fingers, Sasuke and the fangirls disappeared in front of their eyes, returning to where they had come from before. Naruto turned back to Nathan. "So c'mon, poof out your demon!"

"Well, here goes nothing..."

POOF!

- Possibility 1 -

Naruto stared at the organism that stood in front of him. It resembled a nude human female to some degree, though the fact that it had no limbs of any kind or facial expression kind of turned him off. Several tentacles came out its back, and its glowing blue skin spoke of destruction and death and all kinds of naughty things.

"...Jenova?"

Nathan beamed.

"Isn't it awesome?" asked the young Craftsoldier. "Halfway through the story I'm going to be possessed by the spirit of the fake Cetra and completely burn down the Leaf, and then when you chase me down to the mako reactor at the top of the mountain where you and I duke it out, with you coming out on top because I underestimated you. The rest of the story is spent with you and your friends trying to hunt me down before I find the black materia and blow this world to hell!"

Naruto inched back slightly as a button labeled 'security' appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't wise to make sudden movements in front of the clinically insane after all.

- Possibility 2 -

"...A succubus?"

Naruto drooled as he beheld the demonic beauty that stood in front of him. She was wearing very little indeed, and what she wore seemed to only cover the bare necessities. A black wing popped out of her right shoulder, and she slinked down beside her master and enveloped him in a lustful hug.

"Yeah, she's cute, isn't she?" asked Nathan, blushing and scratching his head.

The succubus really was something. She had the body of an innocent girl of sixteen, and the air of somebody familiar with the risquer sides of life. Naruto was doing all he could not to stare, and it still wasn't working.

"I'll trade you my demon for your's."

"I'm good."

- Possibility 3 -

A gigantic red dragon with scales tinged with both black and white appeared out of the smoke, and let out a roar so loud it shook the heavens. Looking down at the two blondes standing at its foot, Naruto was sure the large wyvern was trying to determine if the two pale meaty things might be worth the effort for a meal.

"...Rathalos?" asked Naruto, bewildered.

"Yeah," nodded Nathan.

There was the silence of a few seconds.

"Don't you just hate it when he goes flying around everywhere and your Paintball runs out?"

"Hell yeah, and when he does the roar thing and you can't put up a guard in time before he smears you all over the sidewalk with that goddamn trample of his... Well, at least he isn't quite as annoying as the Plesioth."

"How do you beat that thing anyway? I pack ten Sonic Bombs each time and never manage to drop it!"

The author estimates around two percent of the readership will get this, but those are just the rough numbers. Both Naruto and Nathan however believe that the actual count is much lower. You don't want to prove those two right, now do you?

- Possibility 4 -

"Quagmire?"

"GIGGITY GIGGITY GIG!"


End file.
